17 - Antinatalism

I am not an antinatalist. It would seem, however, that the idea has been growing in popularity. I hold that 'the asymmetry problem' is a decisive blow to strong antinatalism. I also reject weak antinatalism on epistemological grounds. Environmental antinatalism, arguably the most popular form, can also be rejected since it is not the best solution to the environmental challenges that we face. We also discuss several more issues related to antinatalism, like existentialism, panpsychism, memetics, True Detective, The Walking Dead, suicide, and climate change.Transcript David Benatar - We Are Creatures That Should Not Exist [The Critique] Rust Cohle - clip from True Detective [YouTube] CosmicSkeptic on Antinatalism [YouTube] Al-Ma'arri, one of the first antinatalists [Existential Comics] Procreation - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy [SEP] r/antinatalism [reddit] First Reformed (film recommendation) [Amazon]“Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. . . . This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.”Bertrand Russell“[Having children] contributes to problems. It also contributes to progress. If we want to have works of art, for example, or scientific understanding, or technological solutions to the problems around us, they’re going to come from people. If you don’t have the people, you don’t have the contributions.”Noam Chomsky